PART II.

page: [84]
page: 85

PART II.

HOW IS THE RETROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT TO BE STAYED?

TO this question the reply seems obvious: That in a country
with representative institutions Retrogressive legislation must be
prevented, if prevented at all, by the intervention of such Progressive
Elements as exist within the community itself.

page: 86

IS THERE A PROGRESSIVE FACTOR?

But when we look at the Cape Colony at the present day, the doubt at first
forces itself upon us whether there is a Progressive Element at all. Would
this unbroken spell of Retrogressive legislation and political flaccidity be
possible were really Progressive Elements existent in the country?

In times past there was such an element. Small but united, there was a
Progressive Party of which no advanced European people need have been
ashamed. From the days of Pringle and Fairbairn to the
page: 87 days of Sir George Grey and Saul Solomon, not
only was South Africa not wanting in liberal and advanced individuals, but
these individuals had their influential following. It was by these men and
their party that our most advanced institutions were created, our
comparatively broad basis of enfranchisement instituted, our most beneficent
educational establishments, native and otherwise, founded, and the
recognition on our Statute-book of the fact that to all men, irrespective of
race and colour, the law should deal out an even-handed justice—this and
much more was the work of these men.

page: 88

When to-day we see how steadily we are undoing this work, and legislating in
opposition to it, and how entirely opposed to the Progressive spirit of the
past is that which guides our public councils to-day, the suggestion will
force itself upon us: “Is not the Progressive Element dying or dead among
us?”

For years past Retrogressive measure after Retrogressive measure has stained
our Statutebook; undesirable commercial contracts have been entered into,
subjecting public interests to personal gains; the name and prestige of the
Cape Colony have been used for the
attain-
attainment
page: 89 ment of extra-colonial ends in a
manner we do not desire—yet we have remained passive. In town or village no
public meetings have been called to protest against these courses of action.
In no case have even the smallest knots of men been found banded together to
defend the country against these changes. If we except the recent protest
against the bread and meat tax and against the appointment of one of the
Monopolist Party to the highest function of the State, the country has
remained in a condition of deadly passivity and almost comatose inertia.

On the surface I allow it
page: 90 appears that there
is no progressive element in South Africa, but I believe this appearance is
not a reality.

I believe that in every town, and in every district and village, will be
found (though not invariably among its most important or wealthy members) a
certain body of men and women, from the bank clerk to the clergyman, from
the shop assistant to the small tradesman, from the schoolmaster or mistress
to the enterprising young farmer, Dutch or English, from the working man to
the wholesale merchant, who are as essentially advanced in their view as any
body of men or
page: 91 women in any country:
persons wholly unaffected by the disease which seems eating the core of our
national life—that fevered desire to grow wealthy without labour, as
individuals by reckless speculation, and as a nation by annexations.

And if it be asked how, if this Progressive Element exists among us, it has
become so completely inoperative, my reply is simply—Because it lacks
organisation.

At the time of the Restoration there were not fewer advanced and progressive
Republicans in England than there had been in the lifetime of Oliver
Cromwell. They had
page: 92 not died nor emigrated
at the accession of Charles the Second; they were still there, holding their
views with the same strength and with perhaps an added bitterness, but as a
power in the land they were annihilated. They had lost their leader; they
had lost their organisation; and the extreme Retrogressive Party had
attained to both of these. That mass of persons, indifferent to reforms and
public interests, which is found in every country, and which sides with each
dominant party because it has the power of conferring benefits and
inflicting injuries, went over to the Royalists as it had
page: 93 before gone over to the Republicans. The
Democratic Party for years was inoperative in England, but it was not dead,
only disorganised; it came to life again, more democratic than ever.

So, looking nearer home, there were not, eleven years ago, fewer
non-progressive and reactionary persons in the Colony than at the present
day: there were probably more.

The men who have raised the franchise, who have taxed the necessaries of
life, who have crushed all endeavours to contend with scab, who session by
session attempt to pass a Flogging Bill which would disgrace
page: 94 a semi-barbarous people, have not sprung into
existence to-day; they were here, holding their views if possible more
ardently than to-day, but they were powerless; they could not even
materially impede Progressive legislation, because they were unorganised.

This position is ours to-day. Exactly as the Anti-Progressive individual sat
on his farm, unable to give expression to his views, because he sat alone,
and had no means of communicating with his like-thinking and like-feeling
fellows, so to-day the Progressive men and women stand alone in this
country; they are not aware of their
page: 95 own
numbers; they are not aware of the intensity of common conviction which
would bind them into a solid body were they once in touch.

The organisation of these now scattered and isolated units into one united
whole is, I believe, the one and only means of staying the Retrogressive
Movement in this country. And the great practical question before us now
is—How is this to be done?

I allow that I see great difficulties in the way.

WANTED: A LEADER.

One of the first and most essential conditions for
orga-
organising
page: 96 nising a party is the possession
of a leader; we will not say of an Oliver Cromwell, but at least of a
progressive J. H. Hofmeyr; of a man profoundly in sympathy with the
movement, with a gift for organisation, and a willingness to sink his own
personal interests to a large extent in that of his work. It is such a man
the Progressive Element in this country looks for. We have not found him
yet. We have more than one public man of undoubted ability; and we have at
least one man who carries with him the confidence and affection of every
Progressive in the country; but either from some
page: 97 peculiarity of nature, from absence of leisure,
or other circumstances, none of these men stand forward, devoting time and
energy to the formation of such a party throughout the country. We have not
a man to whom the Progressive can turn and say: “Organise and lead us; we
will follow!” The necessity is therefore imposed upon us of organising
ourselves. Nor do I know that this is wholly a calamity.

The most vital and worldwide movements of the present day, such as those of
labour and woman, have not been organised or led by one
command-
commanding
page: 98 ing intellect. They have sprung
up spontaneously, as it were, in a thousand centres, and then slowly
interorganised. It is a healthy indication of a profound necessity when men
at independent centres organise themselves, guided by a common impulse
without any coercing leadership.

This is exactly what we see taking place in the Colony to-day. The imposition
of the bread and meat tax and the appointment of Sir Hercules Robinson have
drawn together small knots of Progressive men to protest against these
things; and in such towns as Port Elizabeth and in Cape Town,
page: 99 under the presidency of Mr. J. Rose-Innes,
powerful Progressive Associations have been started.

And the time is, I believe, now ripe for drawing together all the scattered
Progressive Elements of the country, and uniting them as a wide and
non-parochial whole. One, and not the least, of the great advantages of such
union would be its tendency to prevent the growth in the Progressive Party
of that spirit of localism which seems to rest as an incubus upon all
Colonial endeavours, and which would be entirely at variance with the true
spirit of a Progressive Organisation.

page: 100

To place at the head of the united branches no man could be found more
admirably suited than Mr. J. Rose-Innes, the president of the South African
Political Association of Cape Town, if he were found willing to accept the
post.

FORM ASSOCIATIONS.

I think as a first and practical step towards this larger union it would be
desirable that wherever possible, in towns or districts, a few progressive
men should join together and form Progressive Associations, however small in
size, analogous to those now existing in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. It
page: 101 would then be desirable that these bodies
should enter into communication with each other, and draw up a body of
principles broad enough to make it possible for every really progressive
individual to subscribe to them, and distinct enough to make it quite
impossible for any thoroughly non-progressive person to enter the
organisation. These principles, I think, should be made the basis of all
future organisation.

As a second step, I think it would be advisable that, if possible, a delegate
should be appointed to visit each town and village in the Colony to attempt
to inaugurate a branch of our
page: 102
organisation, however small, in that place. The advantage of this course is
obvious. It is often difficult for any individual in a small Colonial town
to rise up and inaugurate a movement of any kind, unless he chance to be of
exceptional importance, monetarily or otherwise, in the place. In many towns
there may be even a large number of individuals, progressive at heart, who
would join such an organisation, and who would labour for it vigorously and
be able to extend its growth, who yet might not feel themselves in a
position to rise up and take the initiative in instating it.

It may be objected that, in
page: 103 places where
the branch would at first consist of only a dozen individuals, it would be
useless, and serve only to show the barrenness of the land!

But, firstly, while an organisation consisting of a dozen isolated
individuals in some town or village might be of small importance in itself,
connected as it would ultimately be with the organisations in larger towns
throughout the country, its strength would be largely increased; and it
would form the germ of what might in time become an extensive growth. It is
exactly that we may not lose these driblets of progressive thought and
feeling
page: 104 all over the Colony that I
would advocate the endeavour to start such small branch organisations.

If further it be asked, What the principles are which are broad enough to
unite all the Progressive Elements in the country? I think an answer will
not be very difficult.

There are one or two principles subscription to which will make a man a
Liberal and Progressive in any country in the world. Their practical
application will vary infinitely according to the conditions of the Society
in which they are applied; but they are as simple as universal.

page: 105

The fundamental principle¹ upon
which Progressive Liberalism all the world over is based, whether
consciously or unconsciously, and to which it must finally return if it
would justify its varying forms of practical action, is the axiom, however
variously worded, which asserts that the mental and physical welfare and
happiness of
hu-
humanity

¹ There is also that ancient categorical imperative which has lain
behind the Liberalism of all religious natures from the days of
Buddha and Confucius to that of Jesus and the Socialistic movement
of to-day—“Do ye unto others as ye would they should do unto
you”—and which, perhaps, after all, is the most satisfactory
statement of the fundamental principle of Liberalism yet
formulated.

page: 106 manity as a whole is the end of
all wisely directed human effort, whether of individuals or nations; that
one of the main aims of all government must be the defence of its weaker
members from the depredations of the stronger, and that no course of action
which bases the welfare of sections of the community on the sufferings and
loss of other sections is justifiable.

Analysis shows that it is upon this wide principle, however worded, that all
forms of Modern Liberalism are ultimately based. It is by their more or less
complete harmony with it that the thoroughness
page: 107 of their Liberalism may be tested. Nevertheless,
it is perhaps too wide a principle on which to base directly a practical
organisation intended for the many; more especially in a country where some
men's conceptions with regard to Liberal Progressivism are somewhat
indefinite—a prominent public man having declared that he considered himself
a Progressive because he voted for the construction of railways which would
be for his own pecuniary benefit.

THREE TEST QUESTIONS.

In the Cape Colony, and for such an Association as we
pro-
propose
page: 108 pose, there are, I think, three
subjects, a man's attitude with regard to which would amply suffice to show
his adherence or otherwise to this fundamental principle underlying all
Liberalism; and which, I think, would be adequate as a test of the fitness
of any individual for membership in a Progressive Organisation.

The first of these is the Labour Question; the question of the relation
between the propertied, and therefore powerful, class, and the less
propertied, and therefore weaker, class.

In South Africa this question assumes gigantic importance, including as it
does almost the
page: 109 whole of what is popularly
termed the Native Question; that question being indeed only the Labour
Question of Europe complicated by a difference of race and colour between
the employing and propertied, and the employed and poorer classes.

There are two attitudes with regard to the treatment of this Native Labouring
Class: the one held by the Retrogressive Party in this country regards the
Native as only to be tolerated in consideration of the amount of manual
labour which can be extracted from him; and desires to obtain the largest
amount of labour at the cheapest rate possible; and rigidly resists
page: 110 all endeavours to put him on an equality
with the white man in the eye of the law. The other attitude, which I hold
must inevitably be that of every truly progressive individual in this
country, is that which regards the Native, though an alien in race and
colour and differing fundamentally from ourselves in many respects, yet as
an individual to whom we are under certain obligations: it forces on us the
conviction that our superior intelligence and culture render it obligatory
upon us to consider his welfare; and to carry out such measures, not as
shall make him merely more useful to ourselves, but
page: 111 such as shall tend also to raise him in the scale
of existence, and bind him to ourselves in a kindlier fellowship.

As a man takes one or other of these attitudes I believe he will find himself
in accord, not merely with the Progressive Element in this country, but with
the really advanced and Progressive Movement all the world over. In fact, I
go so far as to think that the mere subscription to the latter mode of
regarding the Labour and Native question would constitute an adequate test
in this country as to a man's attitude on all other matters social and
political.

page: 112

The second subject is that of Taxation.

The Retrogressive holds, all the world over, that taxation may be levied for
the benefit of the few. The Progressive attitude is that which holds that
taxation should fall upon the luxuries rather than upon the necessaries of
life; that it should not press more heavily upon the poor than upon the
wealthy; and that the principle of protection, worked so as to increase the
wealth of certain sections of the community at the expense of others, is at
all points to be fought.

The third subject upon which I believe the views of every
ad-
advanced
page: 113 vanced Progressive must and will
coincide is that of enfranchisement.

No man who does not hold that as a State develops its electoral basis should
be extended to obviate the possibility of the claims of the unrepresented
classes being ignored, and their welfare subordinated to that of
represented, though smaller classes, and who does not hold that
Parliamentary representation should increasingly tend to represent
individuals rather than property, can find himself in harmony with the
principles of any real Progressive Organisation.

It may be said that these
page: 114 principles are
too vague; that the articles to which a man would have to subscribe before
joining such an organisation should be more detailed.

But I think a little consideration will show that upon all the practical
questions which have been brought before our Colonial Legislature during the
last few years, subscription to these three principles of action would have
determined a man's attitude. The Labour Tax, Haarhoff's Curfew Bell, the
Bread and Meat Tax, the Strop Bill, the Scab Act, &c.—on all these a
man's position will be certainly and at once determined by the fact of his
being willing
page: 115 to subscribe to these three
principles. A more detailed test for fitness of membership in the
organisation would, I think, be superfluous.

But it may, on the other hand, be objected that these tests would be too
stringent; that certain men would be found quite willing to join a so-called
Progressive and anti-Bond Party who at the same time might not be willing to
subscribe to one or all these tests.

Now to these I would unhesitatingly answer: That such men are not wanted in
our organisation; men who, while holding retrogressive views on the most
page: 116 important social questions, but prompted
by an unworthy racial prejudice, would attempt to join or use the
organisation for racial purposes, hoping to oppose or weaken the party
behind the Bond, are precisely that class of persons we should seek to
exclude from our organisation. They would weaken us, and defeat that very
end for which the organisation was formed. It must of necessity be a first
principle of such an association as we wish to see started that no racial or
class distinction of any kind should concern it, or be allowed to weigh with
us. We should rejoice as cordially to welcome
page: 117 and support the Dutchmen as the Englishmen; the
newcomer as the old inhabitant of the country; the man as the woman; the
wealthy as the indigent. Our sole requirement from any individual wishing to
join us, or seeking our support, should be, Does he share our principles? If
he does, he is one of us; if he does not, though he should call himself a
Progressive leader, and though he should be seven times over an Englishman,
he is not of us.

If it be further suggested that, by pursuing this course, we should alienate
large bodies of persons who would otherwise append themselves to us, and
page: 118 who might ultimately so swell our numbers
as to make us the dominant party in the State, I would frankly reply that no
mere increase of bulk could compensate us for degeneracy in fibre, and that
we do not desire the adhesion of such individuals to our party. Our strength
will not, and cannot, rest upon mere numbers. It must lie in the enthusiasm,
in the superior intelligence, in the unwavering adhesion to impersonal aims,
and in the close-knit union of our members.

The Progressive Element in this country is, and must be for many years to
come, necessarily in a minority, exactly as the
page: 119 extreme Non-Progressive Element is in a minority.
Between us lies the large inert body of politicians and private persons,
indifferent to any aims but those of personal success, and the person of
sincere but very mixed convictions. This body follows to-day the
Non-Progressive Party, because it is the only vigorous and unbending
political organisation existent in the country. If to-morrow there were in
the field a small but vigorous Progressive Party, well organised, and not
willing to capitulate upon any terms, this inert, self-seeking body might
also find it useful to serve us; it might
page: 120
even ultimately give to us the appearance of being the majority in the
State, exactly as it to-day does to the Retrogressive Party. But as from the
day on which the extreme Retrogressive Party shall resign its principles,
and with a feeble opportunism shall receive into its own organisation this
inert mass, the day of its dissolution and disappearance from Governmental
control will have arrived; so also with the Progressive Party. From the day
on which it sacrifices its position as the enlightened leading minority, and
modifies its principles for the purpose of making them acceptable to the
indifferent
page: 121 majority in the country,
from that moment it will have nullified the aim with which it was started,
and all its powers of accomplishment.

I think we cannot too strongly impress upon, and hold up before ourselves,
the fact that such a Progressive Party as we hope to see in this country can
only maintain its power by firm adhesion to its own principles, and not by
any dependence on numbers.

If it be questioned how, in default of large numbers, we expect to exert
influence and make our principles operative in the country, I would reply,
that for many years our primary
page: 122 practical
aim must be the attempt to educate public opinion up to our own standpoint.

Our means for accomplishing this would, it appears to me, be mainly three.

Firstly. We shall form a centre, however small, in every town or village from
which, by the exercise of personal influence, the view of life which the
organisation represents would tend to spread, and however small the branch
might be, it would keep before the eye of the public the fact that such a
view did exist.

Secondly. We should use the Press.

page: 123

USE THE PRESS.

The great strength of such a party as the Progressive Party of South Africa
must be would lie in the superior intellectual enlightenment of its members.
I take it that it is not likely any large body of men will join such an
organisation who have not the intelligence and culture which would enable
them to think somewhat deeply upon social matters. I believe we should
largely represent the thinking element in the community, whether our members
were drawn from the labouring or wealthier class.

Such a body, with no narrow
page: 124 personal ends
to seek, will naturally desire the largest publicity for its views, and will
also have the power of expressing them. Of such a party the main weapon is
the Press. It will find one of its chief duties for many years in constantly
raising and animating public discussion upon all questions, social and
political, as they arise, and in unflinchingly enunciating its own views,
and calling forth the enunciation of those of others—a function of paramount
importance in a country where men often, even in private conversation, fear
to speak above their breath, lest a bird of the air should carry it.

page: 125

We shall make rich use of all the public journals in the country. But if the
Progressive Party is to become a power which shall make itself felt, I
believe its most powerful weapon must be the possession of a journal devoted
entirely to its principles.

With a very few exceptions there is a generous attitude maintained in
Colonial papers, and their columns are freely open to correspondents. We are
rich in able and liberal editors, and our Press in many ways is in advance
of other Colonial institutions. But the fact, which all who have been behind
the scenes of Press life
page: 126 in this country
are aware of (and of which the public appears not to be
aware!), is that no editor, however able and advanced, has, as a rule, an
absolute control over his paper. In the vast majority of cases in the
Colony, as in England, the newspaper is a property held by a larger or
smaller number of shareholders; it is finally theirs, and should the editor
himself be a large shareholder, he has yet not always an independent and
free hand. A certain amount of liberty is granted him, and he may imagine
himself independent; but when crucial commercial or political questions
arise, at the
page: 127 very moment when he would
most desire to stand firm, and unqualifiedly to express his own views, those
persons with whom the real and ultimate control rests may step in; and
whether simply fearing that the commercial value of the paper may decline if
an unpopular course be persisted in; or, immeasurably worse still, actuated
by personal motives, may desire to use the paper for their own commercial or
political benefit—then he may be required to alter his tone or remain
silent.

No knowledge of the high principle and personal integrity of an editor can
give the public assurance that personal
influ-
influences
page: 128 ences may not be compelling him
to modify his course. He is often but an able and highly accredited agent;
and he may, under these circumstances, conscientiously feel that he is not
justified in pursuing a course which would result in commercial loss to
those whose property he manages. He may throw up his control (which is often
impossible), or he must remain silent. Men who would be incorruptible before
any conceivable species of bribe might, nay, almost must, be amenable to
this pressure of circumstances and obligations.

If a paper is to represent undeviatingly and sincerely a
page: 129 certain body of opinions, it is absolutely
necessary either that it should be completely under the control of one man
who is wholly devoted to the body of principles to be maintained, or it must
be the property of an organisation representing these principles. Even in
this case, were the shares held by members of the organisation, it would be
necessary for them to safeguard themselves from the possibility of
individual shareholders being induced to sell their shares to the persons,
or emissaries of the persons, who would be interested in vitiating the
standpoint of the paper.

It would be necessary to make
page: 130 it impossible
for any shareholder to dispose of a share without the consent of either the
Executive Committee of the Organisation, or of all other shareholders, and
for any individual shareholder to possess more than a certain limited number
of shares. It would then be open only to the personal corruption of
individual shareholders,—a contingency against which no foresight or caution
can avail, but of which there would be little danger were the original
shareholders carefully selected.

A paper safeguarded through one or other of these conditions is, I believe,
absolutely essential
page: 131 to the real success
of a Progressive Organisation. Such a paper the Progressive Element in South
Africa possessed when Saul Solomon had absolute control of the Cape
Argus; and such a paper must yet be the rallying point of the
Progressive Party in this country.

The third method by which the association could impress itself upon the
country would be by the share it would take in political life.

INFLUENCE POLITICIANS!

If it be questioned how, if our numbers be too small to return a majority to
the Legislative Councils and to place our
page: 132
men in office, we propose to influence political life, I would reply, that
we neither expect nor, for many years to come, desire to see a Ministry
formed of our own men.

The truly Progressive Element in this country is to-day in a minority, of
about the same numerical strength as the extreme Retrogressive Party;
neither of these parties to-day is strong enough to put into office and to
support, even for a time, a Ministry of its own, consistently carrying out
its views. Neither of them could command so completely the Intermediate or
Colourless Party as to give it a working
page: 133
majority, save by bartering away the very principles, the support of which
formed the sole cause of its existence.

The extreme Retrogressive Party in this country has maintained its power, as
all conscientious minorities must do, by not seeking to grasp in its hands
the ostensible reins of Government, and by its leaders being willing to
forego the sweets of office for the sake of effectively impressing the views
of the party upon successive Ministries.

By such a course of action the Irish Party, composing a minority in the
Imperial Parliament, has yet for years made
page: 134 itself a power, courted and feared by successive Liberal and Conservative
Governments, and has been able to force its views before the public. Had its
leaders as individuals thirsted, not for the success of the principles they
represented, but merely to attain office in some incoming Government, they
would either have had to desert their party, or their party would have been
compelled to rest content with the pleasure of saying, “There are Irishmen
in the Government,” in place of seeing their aims upheld. Had the people of
Ireland set before themselves as their main end the seeing of certain of
page: 135 their representatives on the Government
benches, they could only have attained it by their representatives ceasing
to be Irishmen in everything but name; and the Irish vote would have been
annihilated at the very moment of a shallow seeming triumph.

Such would be the fate of the truly Progressive or truly Non-Progressive
party in this country, if it should set before itself, as its chief end, the
placing of its own men in office.

In a country with representative institutions a minority, unless it uses
force or bribery, cannot place its men in office, and maintain
them there for
page: 136 even the shortest period,
without sacrificing its very existence. This is trite and obvious, but we
dwell upon it because it appears often completely overlooked in the
discussion of political affairs in this country; and the fatuous conception
seems to prevail that a party can only affect the country and the course of
legislation if some person, or persons, who ostensibly belong to its
organisation, at whatever cost to its principles, hold office in the
Government of the day.

The truly Progressive Element in this country will not contain within itself
the large majority of the inhabitants
page: 137 for
the next five, ten, or perhaps even fifteen years. If the majority of our
inhabitants stand, in fifteen years' time, where the majority of the
inhabitants of New Zealand stand to-day, we shall feel that the richest
hopes of the Progressives of this country have been fulfilled.

The part which the Progressive Association in this country will have to play,
perhaps for many years, is that of a small, united party, strong in its
intelligence and determination, and, above all, in the absolutely
unpurchasable nature of its members. A small but united body, it would have
to be
page: 138 reckoned with by each successive
Ministry as it took office, and, because it could neither be purchased or
bent, would be a thorn in the side of every Government intent upon carrying
out measures at variance with its views.

If it be asked by what exact means we could make our influence felt by these
successive Ministries, I would reply that we should influence them, firstly,
by our free and uncompromising discussion in the Colonial and European press
of their methods of action and the measures which they introduced. In a
country which is rotten with opportunism, and where
page: 139 we have reached a point in which a man dares
hardly to give utterance in whispers to his political convictions, and in
which hundreds of men and women sit spell-bound, afraid of losing their
daily bread if they utter a word in condemnation of existing powers, the
fact of persistent and fearless discussion of governmental methods would
render the continuance of certain existing lines of action on the part of
Government almost impossible. Autocratic Governments have nothing so much to
dread as free criticism.

Secondly: Our branches would form centres in every
page: 140 town and village for the prompt calling of public
meetings to protest against undesirable measures. Had such an organisation
been in existence recently when the news reached this Colony of an unpopular
appointment, instead of a knot of Progressive men in a few Colonial towns
having to organise themselves into small bodies for that particular purpose,
it would merely have been necessary to send the news to all branches, and
within forty-eight hours, in almost every town and village in the Colony,
those men who were opposed to the appointment would have met and discussed
the
page: 141 matter, and sent forth their
protests.

Thirdly: We should influence the political world through our electoral
functions.

A GROUP OF TWELVE.

I do not doubt that there would be ten or a dozen men in Parliament who would
represent our views, some or all of them belonging to our organisation.
These men, feeling that they had a considerable body behind them, might more
easily be induced to stand firmly, and refuse all offers of office, or local
and personal benefits, which could be accepted only at the
page: 142 cost of laying aside their functions of
criticism.

At elections we should exert our influence. In every instance we should, if
we were true to our principles, throw our weight, small though it might be,
into the scale of that man, whether Dutchman or Englishman, whom we could
most depend upon to act in accordance with our principles or do least
violence to them. Where we could not possibly return a member of our own we
could, by throwing our weight in the scale of the man most desirable or
least objectionable, turn many elections. If, as an organisation, we stood
firm to our
convic-
convictions
page: 143 tions, we should frequently have
the casting vote.

I think it will be necessary for us to set clearly before ourselves from the
very start the fact that we have not organised ourselves to support any
given body of politicians, but to see our policy enforced; that we have
nailed to our mast-head, not the names of individuals, but a declaration of
our principles. While a man acts in accordance with these, he is one of us;
when he does not, then he ceases to be of us. We could as little have
supported the recent Ministry under Mr. Rhodes, because three of the ablest
and most liberal men of
page: 144 the country bore
office in it, as we could the present Ministry. The bitterest wrong which
leaders can inflict upon their crew is when they take service on the enemy's
ship, and prevent their fellows from attacking it, for fear of wounding
them. Under such circumstances there is nothing to be done but to fire,
regardless whether you bring down your own absconded leaders or the enemy;
and this, even though they may have been partly actuated by a desire to
impede the enemy's sailing powers when they took service.

As Progressives, we should not be moved an inch out of
page: 145 our path by the fact that any man calls himself
an Oppositionist, or is the member of any existing Government. We should
endeavour to support or oppose any man or Ministry with strict impartiality,
exactly as it opposed or supported the principles we represent. As long as a
man, in any single instance, supported them, did he call himself Bondsman or
Retrogressive, he should have our steadfast approval.

That captious criticism, and disingenuous judgment, which would condemn any
measure brought in or supported by a member of an opposing political
faction, and which is almost
in-
inevitable
page: 146 evitable where men have turned
politics into a game, and are playing to make points, should be wholly
foreign to the spirit of such an organisation as our own, whose chief end
should be the passing of those measures we believe beneficial, and not the
seeing of those men who call themselves our representatives for the moment
captains in the political game.

Were such an organisation as I have suggested formed which would draw into
itself the scattered Progressive Elements throughout the whole country,
despising none; and which should seek to draw its strength, not from
numbers, but from the
page: 147 determination and
the impersonal aims of its members; which should endeavour to influence
political life without throwing itself into the whirlpool of political
ambitions; and which should stand outside, consistently fighting for its own
principles—such an organisation, though including perhaps at first not many
noted political names, but formed of the people and for the people, would, I
believe, slowly and surely grow. For the first two years our occupation
would be mainly that of self-organisation, and the education of public
feeling. I believe that in five years' time we should be a power in the
page: 148 land, able to restore the Retrogressive
Influences to that healthy and natural position in which they would form a
conservative safeguard, preventing the inauguration of measures too far in
advance of the social condition of the community. I believe that in fifteen
or twenty years' time our aims, which now appear chimerical to a part of the
community, will be then but an attempt to give voice to the convictions of
the people. And this I believe is worth working and waiting for.